


The Fire Breather

by Amazionion



Series: Firebreather Rewrite [1]
Category: FireBreather (2010), FireBreather - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, Combining the comics and movie, Everyone Is Gay, Gen, Giant/Tiny, Interspecies Relationship(s), Mentions of interspecies sex, Nonbinary!Kenny Rogers, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26950879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amazionion/pseuds/Amazionion
Summary: Giant Monsters referred to by the masses as Kaiju had been opposed to humanity for as long as humans have existed. Seventeen years ago they all vanished from human civilization after a strike that left a city in ruins. Most think the kaiju are lying in wait for humanity to tear itself apart or for a better chance to strike. Few actually know what happened to the monsters; that their leader took a human woman as a bride and she gave birth to a half human heir, and their ruler is holding them back for his heir to come of age.Duncan is a teenager who is anything besides normal. He can pick up a school bus with one hand and take bullets with little more than a bruise. He wants nothing to do with the monstrous side of him, but his father and his destiny refuse to let Duncan know the definition of normal.(A rewrite of my rewrite for the 2010 cartoon network movie Firebreather, based on a comic series of the same name)
Relationships: Margaret Rosenblatt/Belloc (former)
Series: Firebreather Rewrite [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1966687
Comments: 37
Kudos: 22





	1. Prologue: One Woman's Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> **Contains/Warnings:** Kidnapping, destruction of a city, giant monster caused disaster

Smoke burned bright in the otherwise cloudless sky early that early spring morning. Pavement cracked and shattered under the clawed feet of the King of Monsters as he scoured through a large city, looking for any human female he could take for himself.

Unfortunately, it was as difficult as trying to pry a hungry gamoradon from between your scales. The other kaiju that followed their king into the city were occupied with destruction, and they'd caused fire and collapses. Humans died in those. 

Belloc was searching for a bride, not a meal, and the others were making it quite hard to find.

It took a while, but eventually Belloc had cornered a woman with hair as red as his own scales. She was screaming, her body reeked of terror, pressed tightly to the brick wall behind her as if that would protect her. 

He had no time to waste. Belloc reached out with his claws to pluck her up and saw a rock bounce off his claws. "Hey! Leave her alone!" 

Belloc turned his head and another rock hit just under his eye. A woman stood in the middle of a road, a rock in her hand. Something about her looked familiar, tugging at the back of his mind while he left the other woman alone. 

"Come get me, you big brute!" She took off running, but not out of fear - she smelled only of her sweat and perfume. She ran from him as a challenge. 

That one. This woman would be his mate. It was destiny. 

Belloc followed her, being as careful as he could be. It would simply not do if he accidentally hurt her. 

She tripped over something when she tried to bolt through an alley and Belloc had finally caught her. She looked up at him, a challenge in her eyes burning as bright as dragon fire. Suddenly, it clicked how she was familiar. 

The Well had shown her to him in a vision ages ago. The sleeve of her dark red tank top hanging off one shoulder, exposing her dark brown skin, the black, curly hair half escaped of her ponytail, the boots with one terribly scraped up. Yes. He'd seen her before. It truly was destiny. She would be his bride. 

It seemed she knew it too. The woman didn't flinch any when Belloc reached out and picked her up off the hard ground. She fit into his leathery palm like she belonged there. 

Belloc rose to his back feet, bringing the woman against his chest. "Kaiju, return to our kingdom!" His Command bellowed across the city. The other kaiju instantly turned and fled. 

A military plane opened fire on Belloc, and he batted it aside like a cave crawler. He had no need to stay behind and lay waste to their army. There were more important things to do. 

The fate of humanity and kaiju both rested with this woman. 

As Belloc turned and fled, he had only a single thought. He needed to get this woman safe, so their future child could save the world.


	2. Chapter 1: Seventeen Years Later; A New Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Summary:** It's Duncan's first day at a new school after a big move. He's nervous about it. Thankfully some other weirdos seem to take a shine to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Contains/Warnings:** nervousness, bullying, a hot drink is spilled on someone accidentally, Nonbinary!Ken Rogers, dissection of frogs mentioned

Over seventeen years had passed since the last massive kaiju attack, and the public hadn’t heard so much as a whisper from the kaiju in all that time. 

Dawn broke over the small desert town of Rose Peak. People were preparing to go to work and school, except for one teenager. Duncan Rosenblatt. The half-kaiju child of Maragret Rosenblatt and the King of Monsters, Belloc. Duncan was dragging his feet as he came out of his room, finally dressed. 

"Maybe I should skip.” Duncan suggested quietly as he sat at the dining room table. “Nothing says 'freak' more than coal for lunch." He sighed, burying his head in his arms. 

“You’re not a freak, Duncan, and you’re not missing your first day of a new school.” She opened up the cabinets and pulled down a couple of bowls. 

"But you still need help unpacking.” Duncan gestured to the boxes piled up in the living room from their move. “I-I could have the last of the boxes unpacked by noon! And what if you think the couch isn’t in the right place? You’ll need my help moving it." 

“Duncan, we’ve talked about this.” She set a bowl of cereal at her place and placed a bag of charcoal briquettes on the counter. “You’re going to graduate from here, barring any accidents.”

He looked up at her, a frustrated look on his face. “Come on, Mom. Can’t this wait until tomorrow? Nothing bad happens on Wednesdays.” 

“Duncan, this isn’t as bad as you’re making it out to be. This is a small town, there’s very few kids at this school, there’s going to be plenty of space for you to-”

“A small school just means they’re going to be tighter knit. Everyone can point and laugh at the freak.” 

“You are not a freak.” She set the bowl of briquettes in front of him. “Eat your breakfast.”

"'Not a freak.' Get real, Mom. I eat coal, and my hair, well, just look at it." He gestured to the unnaturally vibrant red hair that he had spent a while styling in the bathroom mirror. "It’s red."

"It's barely noticeable, honey. And your hair is beautiful, don't let anyone tell you different." She sat down across from him, putting a spoon in her bowl. "But, you could choose the supplements over having to eat coal." 

He sulkily started to eat. "Those stupid supplments just make me feel sick, and I have enough nausea from having to start a new school, again."

"Doctor Pytel already said that there was nothing she could do about the nausea from the supplements, Duncan, I'm sorry." She gently patted the back of his hand. 

He groaned and busied himself eating his breakfast.

She continued, trying to stay encouraging, "Duncan, this is a new school, not an execution. If you just try to socialize, maybe you'll make some friends, and st-"

"Stop getting into fights, but they're always the one who start it." He was talking with one breath. "Jerks are instinctively drawn to me, like... like homing pigeons!" After a second, he slumped down in his chair and pushed his breakfast away from him. 

"Duncan, you're a sixteen year old boy, just like every other guy in your class." She gently grasped his hand, rubbing her thumb over the back of his hand. "Every kid in that school has problems of their own. So, if you can just try to find somebody to get along with and keep your temper, everything's gonna be just fine." 

"Message received." He sighed and grabbed his ACDC jacket off the back of his chair before looking for his backpack. 

"Do you want me to drive you?"

"No, no." He hiked the backpack up on his shoulders and smoothed out his shirt. "I’m good with walking. You have stuff to do and a job interview to get on with, I don't want to keep you."

"Duncan."

He turned to look at her before going out the front door. She signed 'I love you.'

He returned the gesture. "Love you too, Mom."

As Duncan walked, he tried to remember the way to his first class of the day from the front doors. He did not want to be the one new kid, wandering around all lost on his first day. He had been kicking a rock for about two blocks now, and as his thoughts strayed to the last school, he kicked it a little too hard. 

The rock flew up into the air, the breeze caught it and it sailed right into the side of someone's car. The car alarm started screeching. "Uh-oh." Duncan speed walked until he had turned the corner and nobody could possibly connect him with the wailing car alarm. 

A car full of guys with the top down had pulled up near a girl at the corner stoplight, and two or so of the guys in the car, including the driver, were catcalling the girl. She gave them one glance, then scoffed in disgust and ducked into the Starbucks on the corner. 

His sensitive ears picked up on the conversation in the car once the cafe door shut. "That the new kid?"

"Probably, never seen him around before."

"God, he's a dork."

Oh boy. Car full of jerks and he has not even made it onto the actual school lot. New record. He crossed the road and was nearing the building when they pulled up next to him. The driver called out. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought there was some bird crap on my rear view mirror, but now I can see it's just your face!" 

The rest of the car laughed. 

"That one's real original," Duncan muttered to himself as they drove off. "Idiot."

Duncan had made it a few minutes before the 'go to class' bell rang. Students had been milling around the cafeteria, but Duncan couldn’t find any unclaimed tables once he’d finally gotten inside. It would seem he’d actually have to ask someone if he could sit at their table. Duncan was trying to work up the courage to approach a table with only one other person when the bell rang and students started heading to class. Duncan let out a sigh of relief. At least he didn't need to find a breakfast table.

He was trying to find his biology class, and from the numbers on the door it looked like he was getting pretty close, but it seemed the universe wanted to mess with him. Duncan turned the corner right into the girl he had seen on his walk to school. The lid came off her coffee and she spilled it all over his shirt. 

Duncan jumped back a little, and he looked down at his Legend of Zelda shirt that was now soaked through with hot coffee. "Ah man-" He bit his tongue, remembering what his Mom had told him. "Ow."

The girl was somewhat frantically fishing around in her purse, and she looked up with a fist full of napkins. "Here, I'm so sorry!"

A sigh left him as he tried to dab up the steaming mess, pulling his shirt a little away from his chest. "It's alright, it's just a shirt." 

"I'm so sorry!" She tried to help with a few more napkins. "Did it burn you? Should I get the nurse?"

He looked up. Right. Scalding hot water normally burned the crap out of people, just not him. It took a lot to actually burn Duncan. When your father is a fire breathing monster, you get to be fireproof. "Uh, no. No, it doesn't feel that bad. I was freezing, I'm fine." 

She raised an eyebrow. "It must be eighty degrees in here, but, whatever. Uh, I’ll see you around." 

"See you around, uhh….”

“Jenna.”

“See you around, Jenna."

She headed for her locker and Duncan headed to his first class of the day. He finally found the door after consulting his schedule a couple times and walked in as casually as he could.

As he feared, he was called to the front of the class to be introduced to the rest of the students. His mom hadn't been joking about the tiny class size. There were maybe twenty people here. Jenna was in the class, as was a few of the jerks from this morning. 

The teacher started to introduce him to the rest of the class. “I’d like to ask the whole class to give a warm welcome to Duncan Xerxes Absalom Wu Fan Cassius-”

Duncan spoke up, cutting her off. “Just Duncan’s fine, Mrs. Dreakford.”

“Alright, take a seat, Duncan.” 

One girl sitting in the back of the class partially raised her hand. She wore a blue and white hoodie, her black hair in a ponytail. She wore cargo pants and converse. “Hey, Duncan, sit here with Kenny.” She gestured to the person sitting at the desk in front of her. “They don’t have a lab partner.”

Duncan shrugged and sat next to them, setting his bag next to the stool. “Hi.” Duncan said quietly as he sat down. 

“Hi, I’m Ken Rodgers.” 

Duncan smirked. “Kenny Rodgers. Do you know when to hold ‘em? Know when to fold ‘em?”

They were unamused. “No, not even a little.” They had shaggy brown hair that hung past their ears, and was wearing a navy hoodie and black pants. Their backpack was well worn and decorated with pins, one being a large button that said 'they/them' in big yellow, white, purple, and black letters.

The teacher had started class. They were in the middle of a lab project, the ever classic dissecting of amphibians. They got out their lab notebooks and Duncan, since he didn’t have any of the paperwork signed, was just going to be writing down observations on the frog they were taking apart and watching Kenny dissect it. 

“As you'll remember from your notes that like reptiles and insects, amphibians are ectotherms and cannot internally regulate their body temperature. What we used to call, ‘Cold blooded.’”

Isabel looked over at Kenny, who shook their head, then grinned at the teacher. “Why did we stop? Did the amphibians object to being labeled ‘cold blooded’?”

The rest of the class chuckled. 

“If you remember from the articles I gave you to look over,” The teacher continued, “The term went out of use among the scientific community because the term ‘cold blooded’ doesn’t accurately describe the phenomenon.”

Kenny was struggling to get the lab safety gloves on when Jenna stood up with something she had pulled out of her bag. “Here, Mrs. Dreakford. I finally got my Mom to sign the thing that excuses me from this wrong project.”

“Wrong, Jenna?" The teacher sighed. It seemed this wasn’t the first time that the teacher and Jenna had this conversation. Duncan absently played with his pencil. It seemed Jenna was  _ that  _ girl. Well, there went the mild attraction to her that Duncan was considering. 

She scoffed. “Beyond the obvious animal cruelty issues students have a right, no, a duty-”

The teacher took the form from her. “That’ll be enough-”

“-To refuse to do things so unbelievably disgusting. Forcing us to mutilate these helpless, innocent animals and not even offering us a choice in the matter?”

"You completely have a choice-"

Duncan’s eyes drifted from her argument with the teacher down at the lizard she was supposed to dissect. His eyes widened as he saw it stirring. He recognized what exactly it was. It was a part of the tiny sub species of kaiju, and it was alive.

Oh boy. He would need to do something about that before it got loose in a classroom.

The teacher had finally managed to calm her down when Duncan snapped back to the present. “Please dispose of your specimen if you’re not going to participate in the lab.”

She looked down at the 'lizard' that she was supposed to dissect and grabbed her purse up from the chair. “Gross.” 

Duncan jumped to his feet, startling Kenny who was holding the scalpel. “I’ll do it!”

Jenna looked at him. “Fine, whatever.” She slung her purse over her shoulder and went to the library. Duncan grabbed the tray and went over to the trash can with a biohazard sign on it, unbuttoning his jacket with one hand. 

The lizard thing tried to bite at him as he grabbed it. He quickly swapped the lizard in his hand with a rock from his internal pocket, tossing the rock away to put the lizard in his jacket pocket. It was a shame he had to toss the rock, it was such a pretty shade of orange. He set the tools and tray on the counter and went to go sit back down next to Ken, who still was not impressed. 

“If you want a girl to notice you, throwing away her lab project isn’t the way to do it, bro.” They said as they made the first incision on the frog. “Okay, make sure you use a pen, dude.”


	3. New Friends. New Enemies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Summary:** Duncan's first day at school continues, and he makes both friend and foe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Contains/Warnings:** Bullying, swearing, positive discussion of LGBT+ identities.

In the hallway after class, Kenny and Isabel approached, walking with him towards the gym. “So, Mr. Xerxes Absalom. What’s your secret?”

He ran his hands through his curly, bright red hair. “Lots of bleach and lots of time in between.”

She laughed. “No. I mean, why is your name like an A-list of mythological bad boys? Care to explain?”

Duncan shrugged as he started down one of the flights of stairs. "Unconventional parents, but, uh, you really know your crypto-zoology, don’t you?" 

Kenny nodded. "Isabel loves all kinds of monster stuff. She's a fan girl."

"Monster is in the eye of the beholder." She skipped down the stairs.

Standing just inside the stairwell, Duncan noticed one of the kaiju PSA posters that read 'survival is your duty.' With a picture of Belloc on his last rampage. He felt that weird sensation again in his stomach. His throat felt tight, and his skin felt like it was crawling.

"They’re not even really monsters either.” Isabel was still chattering while she stood around the poster. “They fight us because we invade their territory, destroy their food sources, and on top of it all, we keep trying to kill them. It's been nearly eighteen years since Belloc was last seen and we keep thinking the Kaiju are a threat." 

Kenny noticed that Duncan had not moved and elbowed him in the arm. "Hey, you okay?"

“I’m okay-” Duncan was cut off when those bullies from earlier roughly shoved past him while they came down the stairs. He smacked against the poster and shot a glare at them while they left.

"What assholes!" Isabel growled and reshouldered her backpack. "Shouldn’t have evolution weeded those guys out of the gene pool?" 

Duncan smirked softly while he looked over at Isabel. "True, but cockroaches have remained unchanged for millions of years.”

Isabel grinned softly. "Well, you aren't a moron, so, what was up with stealing Jenna's specimen back in class?"

Duncan blinked in surprise. "How did you-?"

"Kenny told me."

Kenny crossed their arms. "I could feel it against my side. Did you grab it because it was still alive or did you grab it for another reason?"

Duncan looked around and brought them in close. "Just, keep it quiet, okay?"

Once they were out of sight, just outside on the student patio, alone, Duncan grabbed the lizard out of his jacket and he held it in cupped hands. The thing was still squirming against his grip. Isabel gasped at the lizard. 

"No way! A gamoradon!" She grinned widely. 

"No wonder it lived through the formaldehyde, these things are tough." Kenny was watching, fascinated. 

Duncan shrugged. "All I know is that it's kinda like a little, tiny, kaiju." 

Isabel scoffed, "It’s a gamoradon, my dear Duncan. These things live on kaiju in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. They scout, warn of danger, and live off the slime that forms between their scales. It's like buffalo and the oxpecker."

He made a gagging noise and looked down at it. "Sorry I asked. How come you know all this stuff?" 

Isabel shrugged. "I read books on this stuff all the time. It's a small press."

"I think you have every book on the subject on these things."

The gamoradon had gotten loose from clenched in Duncan's fist. It bit his thumb. Duncan cried out in pain, dropping it.

"Don't let it get away!" Isabel shouted and tried to snatch it up. Duncan nearly ended up stepping on it as he chased it, and after a second, it just barely slipped out of Kenny's hands. "Ah man, I was hoping I could take it home."

"Why would you even want to keep that?" Duncan got up, dusting off his jacket. "It's gross."

Kenny sighed loudly. "Have you not figured it out yet? She's the class weird girl. But, we should get to gym." Kenny brushed off their hoodie. "I want to make a good impression on the new teacher."

"New teacher?" Duncan raised an eyebrow. This should be interesting.

Their new gym teacher was a familiar face to Duncan. The white hair and the military buzz cut and the blue eyes were familiar by now, but the tanning bed treatment was new. "Alright everybody, line up. I’m your new gym teacher. You can call me Coach Barnes." 

Colonel Travis "Booshwa" Barnes. Commanding Officer of a Special Kaiju Operations Strike Force, Duncan’s government liaison, handler, and baby sitter all in one. He's the guy who would bribe and threaten people to keep quiet over his secret, and the guy who'd make sure Duncan made it to his checkups and wasn't getting into trouble all in one. And now he was the gym teacher. Maybe this could be fun.

Duncan walked up to him, a smirk set on his lips. "I was wondering when I’d run into you. Gym teacher? That’s your cover? Really? You’re coming down in the world since the last school."

He scoffed and made a note on his clipboard. "The whole Vice Principal thing really cramped my style. I could only yell at the kids. Here, it'll be a little more like discipline at boot camp. Besides, nobody would be reporting your super strength or going through your gym bag for drugs but me."

Duncan rolled his eyes at the reminder before going to line up next to Kenny and Isabel for roll call. "What were you saying to Coach Barnes?"

"Nothing important." He shrugged. "Who's ready for some public humiliation?"

Gym was pretty normal, if you counted how gym was portrayed in crappy eighties movies as normal. Stretches, laps, then a dodgeball game. Duncan knew by now through the various roles that Colonel Barnes had taken, lesson plans were not his strong suit. 

Those jerks from that morning comprised most of the football team or basketball team. The driver of the car was named Troy Adams, Duncan picked that up from roll call. 

Duncan was put on the other side and sighed quietly. He'd either have to defend himself or take the punishment. He really hated gym class. Super strength was too easily shown off.

The whistle was blown and the game started. The first volley of dodge balls were thrown and at least half of the team that Duncan was stuck on was out. 

"Come on!" Kenny shouted from the sideline at Duncan. "You got this!" 

"Just a couple losers left." Troy tossed the ball from hand to hand while he eyed up his opponents. "Let's take out the trash, starting with the monster fucker."

"What are you, twelve?" Isabel threw the ball and missed. 

Troy snorted and threw the big rubber ball right at her head.

"That's enough!" Duncan snatched the ball right out of the air. "Leave her alone!"

More were thrown at him, but Duncan blocked all of them with the two he would catch. He threw one right back at Troy, who moved and someone else was hit. If he'd been as tall as Troy, Duncan would have been out with a below the belt shot penalty. 

"Just hold still!" Troy's team threw a couple more at Duncan, who snatched one out of the air and threw it right back. As they recovered, Duncan snagged up two balls near the middle line and hurled them at Troy. The dodgeballs both hit him in the face with a satisfying  _ smack.  _

Barnes blew his whistle. "Adams, catch with your hands, not your face! Rosenblatt, no head shots!" 

Duncan stuck his tongue out at him and high-fived Isabel as he walked over to stand next to Ken. 

They had lost the game, obviously, but it still had been fun to play. 

It was lunchtime, and Duncan decided to forego his lunch of coal to hang out with Ken and Isabel in the hallway outside the library. It felt nice having friends to hang out with again. It'd been about two moves since he'd had anyone who actually wanted to hang out with him. 

"CaTCH wiTH YoUr HanDS NOt yoUr FaCe." Kenny mocked Barnes. "I wish I could have gotten that filmed. Could have been great meme material." 

Isabel grinned quietly. "If having Duncan around is gonna get him off our backs, it's gonna be great adding him to the friend group." 

"You think I'm a friend?" Duncan rubbed the back of his neck. 

"Yeah, why not?" Ken shrugged. "You're a decent lab partner, didn't call Izzy weird, respected my pronouns, and you have great taste in clothes." 

"The bar that low?"

"Oh yeah." Ken nodded. "You're looking at probably the only other LGBT+ kids in the school." 

"Ouch. Is my bi ass that obvious?" Duncan glanced down at himself. 

"You legit have a pride flag in sharpie on your jeans." Isabel pointed down at Duncan's thigh. There was, in fact, a pink, purple, and blue striped flag on his pants leg he'd doodled one day.

"Ah. Forgot about that." Duncan hummed. "So, I'm not in the closet, what about you guys?" 

"Non binary. They/them." Kenny shrugged. "Not sure yet, but I'm not straight." 

"I'm pan." Isabel grinned. 

"Neat." Duncan smirked, but quickly dropped the look when he saw Troy and his cronies approaching. "Ugh, speak of the devil..." 

"Get lost, you two." Troy growled while eyeing Duncan. 

"It's a free country, amigo." Kenny sneered. 

Isabel scoffed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears. "What are you gonna do, Troy? Beat up a helpless student in the middle of the hallway during lunch hour with, oh, three teachers coming this way?"

He turned to look. Sure enough, several teachers were coming down the hallway. One of the cronies grabbed Troy by the shoulder. "We should go."

"You better watch your back, Duncan." Troy snarled before stalking off with his group in tow. 

"I'm so scared." Duncan snorted. "Asshole."

Next class of the day was foreign language with both Isabel and Kenny. The Spanish teacher was pretty young, chill kind of teacher, but it meant that the classroom could slip into being a madhouse. 

The last class of the day was math. Troy was in the last one, as was that Jenna girl, and neither Ken nor Isabel were. But, thankfully everyone behaved in it. The teacher was pretty strict, but it wasn't that bad. 

The final bell rang about a quarter past three, and Duncan was ambushed by Ken and Isabel as he headed out the front door. “Let me give you our numbers.” She was scribbling on a sticky note. 

“Uh.” Duncan had just gotten a new phone, and he’d not memorized the number yet. 

“Here, just text us when you feel comfortable.” Isabel stuffed the sticky note into the chest pocket in his jacket. “I got to go.”

“I work closing at Mr. Zesty Burger, so if you text me, don’t expect a reply until, like, midnight.” Kenny was buckling a helmet while they sat on their bike. “I’ll see you around, Duncan.”

“See you guys around.” Duncan mumbled as they each went their separate ways. He let loose a deep breath. At least he had managed to make it out of the first day of school without being suspended. 

He started on his way home. Duncan had planned to cut across the parking lot so he could shave a few minutes off his walk time when Troy cornered him against a truck. 

He and his goons were clearly in for a fight. Duncan  _ really  _ hated dealing with small town bullies. Always acted like they owned the place. Always trying to get away with junk. Always picking on someone they think is an outsider. 

"You know what happens now?" Troy cracked his knuckles. 

"Well, traditionally, here’s where I hand you your meat, all nice and on a slab." He scratched absently at his chin, noting hidden scales under the skin somewhere. "But, I pretty much promised my Mom I wouldn’t fight, soooo, later!" 

Duncan shoved Troy and easily pushed his way through two goons. Super strength was really good for getting away. 

The chase was on, adrenaline thrumming through his blood. 

Leading the chase, but not indulging the instinct to run at superhuman speeds, Duncan cut into one of the open doors of the school. He glanced over his shoulder, backpack thumping against his back, seeing Troy and two others following. 

He groaned and then turned towards the gym. There was an exit he could slip out of without triggering an alarm. He just needed to get  _ out _ of here. His mouth was salivating something terrible. Weird.

Barnes was coming out of the gym, so Duncan had to skid to a stop. "Hey teach!" He grinned and then dashed into the cafeteria. Hopefully the door here didn't trigger an alarm. 

He was rushing towards the patio when Troy seemingly materialized between him and the door. Duncan was cornered near the wall and he couldn't run anywhere. He gulped and heat started to fill his stomach. 

"You don't want to fight me." He tugged at his collar, heart pounding in his chest as the heat moved up. 

"Don't worry, it's not gonna be a fight, more like a beat down." 

Troy reached into his pocket and something snapped inside of Duncan. His limbs were buzzing with adrenaline and the heat pushed up his throat. 

"Leave me alone!" 

Fire spewed out of his mouth, spreading across the ground. The fire burned for a long moment, then went out, leaving scorch marks all over the floor.

Troy jumped back, fear flashing across his face. "Fuck this, I'm outta here!" 

Part of Duncan screamed at him that this was enough, Troy was leaving, the danger had passed, but another part of him, a louder part, a more aggressive part of his brain, screamed at him that this guy deserved what was coming to him. 

Duncan felt the fire about to come up again, when Barnes appeared. He tripped up Troy and grabbed Duncan from behind. His gloved hand covered Duncan's mouth and restrained him. 

"Holy shit, kid." Barnes whistled. He put out a bit of smouldering floor tile with his shoe. "Way to keep a low profile." 

Troy scrambled back until his back pressed against the wall. "Dude breathed fire...wh-what is he?"

Barnes snapped his attention over to Troy. "Get out of the building now or you're expelled, got it?"

Troy took off, glancing back only once.

"You on the other hand, are in a huge heap of trouble."


	4. Checkup with the Doctor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Summary:** With the development of a new power under his belt, Duncan needs to go have a checkup with Doctor Pytel to make sure that nothing is wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Contains:** Very slight blood, Doctors and Medical Equipment, nonsexual partial nudity, some swearing

Duncan was still protesting as they walked to where the jump jet was hidden near the school. "It wasn't my fault! It just happened."

"Save it for later, kid." Barnes sighed and pressed his hand against the scanner on the cargo bay. 

"Troy was asking for it, I - I was just trying to defend myself. He was going to try to hurt me." Duncan gestured to himself. "What would you rather have me do? Snap his  _ neck?!" _

"Don't worry about it." Barnes grabbed Duncan by the arm and pulled him into the jet. "I'll take care of it. I was gonna bench him anyway. Troy runs fine but can’t hold on to a ball with a handle."

Duncan groaned and flopped into one of the passenger chairs. "Because that makes me feel  _ so _ much better." He tossed his bag into another chair.

Barnes slid into the pilot's seat and the jet took off through the open doors. 

On the way to the base, Duncan was itchy. horribly itchy. His skin felt like it was  _ crawling. _

He had scratched at his arms and face, and then it hit him as he scratched at his neck and his hands felt something wet. His scales felt harder and extremely prominent. They had come through. 

Duncan whipped out his phone to check his reflection. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the bright red scales around his neck like a collar, shining with pink-tinged slime.

"What the  _ hell?" _ He whispered, feeling his arms. He normally had to press down to feel the scales on his face, but now they were just under the skin, or sitting on his skin like blood red armor.

"What's wrong?" Barnes asked over his shoulder. 

"My scales just broke through!" Duncan rubbed his neck and hated the slimy and hard scales under his fingertips. He felt his shirt catch on his skin and yanked his collar down. There were more scales covering the top of his chest. "Fuck!"

Duncan was definitely not happy as the plane approached the MEGTAF base. Doctor Pytel was the only doctor that he trusted to take care of him, and one of the few people he actually trusted in that stupid base. It was full of soldiers and weaponry and God knew what else.

MEGTAF (Monster Extermination Global TAsk Force*) was a special international task force that was dedicated to the study, containment, and neutralization of the kaiju. Since Duncan's father was the King of the Kaiju, it also meant that Duncan was one of their areas of study. 

They'd been in Duncan's life since before he was even conceived. Margaret had served under them for years before she met Belloc, and they had helped her after she escaped while pregnant. 

They were the ones who monitored the scale growth, the super strength, and now they were probably going to be monitoring this fire breath. 

Barnes landed the jet in the hanger and Duncan got his bag and headed towards Dr. Pytel's office. 

"Hey Duncan." She looked at him with a smile as he entered her office. "Barnes radioed ahead about scales and fire breath. Remove your shirt and pants and get on the scanning table." She flipped the machine on. 

Duncan sighed and did what he was told. The machine hummed against his back while Doctor Pytel made some notes. 

"When did they break through your skin exactly?" She pulled up a chair by the machine. 

"I didn't even notice they were out until I was on the way over." 

She nodded. "May I feel them?" 

"Sure." 

She stood over him and then carefully touched his throat. "They seem to be thickest over your carotid artery, but it's close." She glanced down his body. "Covering your heart too." She lifted an arm. "Armpit. That might explain the lack of bodily hair." She took a step down and he felt her touch his thighs. "Mostly inner thigh. Must be instinct to protect your arteries." 

Duncan grunted to himself and she took out a pen light to check him over. The table finished scanning, so he assumed that she would look him over while the machine transferred the results to her computer. She shined the light in his eyes and Duncan had to not squint at the intrusion. 

“This looks interesting.” She muttered to herself. “Your pupils seem to have undergone change as well.”

“Haven’t they gone all cat eyes before?”

“Well, yes, your pupils have become slits instead of round before, but nothing nearly to this extent. The inner eyelid I’ve noticed before seems to have extended as well. It must be something to do with protecting your eyes from the fire breath.” He sighed softly and let her finish up. She only poked and prodded for a few more minutes. “Okay, you can get dressed again, Duncan.”

With a sigh he hopped off the table and then got dressed, putting his pants back on. 

“Wait, don’t put your shirt back on just yet.” He paused at her voice while he had his shirt over his head. “I need to listen to your lungs.”

Duncan groaned and sat back down heavily. The machine creaked under his weight. 

“Careful.” Doctor Pytel reminded him while she pressed the head of her stethoscope to his back. “Breathe deep and even for a few moments, Duncan.”

He did as he was told, and breathing in was fine, if his throat felt a little strange, but when he breathed out, flame spewed out of his mouth. 

The fire landed on the tile and Doctor Pytel jumped back, a startled yelp coming out of her mouth. The door to the office was pulled open and Barnes stormed in. “I heard a scream.”

“Just an accident!” She grabbed a fire extinguisher and quickly put the fire out. “It would seem that the fire breath is literally a breath of fire.” She adjusted her glasses and set the fire extinguisher back down. “Thank you for your concern, Colonel, but we’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay to make sure no other accidents happen?” Barnes cast an accusatory glare over at Duncan. 

“We will be fine.” She shooed him out and shut the door behind him. “Anyway, let me just get a look at your teeth and then you can go.”

“My teeth?”

“Just to confirm or deny a theory.” She pulled out the pen light again. 

Duncan opened up and let her look in his mouth. She hummed to herself and then pulled back, pocketing the pen light. “Is there anything weird you feel with you’re about to breathe fire?”

He shook his head. “I don’t really feel anything, other than like… heat? I guess my throat feels a little tight, but, like, there’s nothing major that changes.”

“How about your medication?” She made a note on her board. “You’ve been taking the proper dosages?”

“Mhm.” He sighed. He was on a mild pain medication, been on it for a while. Once the scans had started to show the scales growing under his skin and Duncan complained about how much it hurt, she gave him stuff for when the pain got bad. 

“Okay, that should be all.” She handed him his shirt and jacket. “You can go wait in the rec room for your mom.”

“Yes, Doc.” He sighed and got dressed. “Can you not tell her that I nearly scorched a guy at school?”

“Doctor patient confidentiality.” She smiled softly and then her eyes widened. “Your scales!” 

He glanced down and noticed that the scales had retreated back into his body. “Hm. That solves that.” Duncan went out of the room to see Barnes standing next to the door, arms crossed firmly over his chest. He entered the room and Duncan paused outside the closed door, eyes shut. He wanted to hear this. 

Thank goodness he had enhanced hearing. Allowed him to hear around closed doors.

Barnes spoke first "Is this it, Doc? Or should we expect  _ other  _ surprises?"

Doctor Pytel took a moment before she spoke. "Well, obviously, Duncan’s innate strength and resilience have been growing steadily since birth, but, it seems that his natural fight or flight response created a hyper-stimulated state that manifested itself as incendia respiro." 

Moment of silence. 

"Fire breath. Literally a breath of fire." He heard her clear her throat. "You know Duncan has been steadily gaining more and more of his father's abilities, but he should learn to control it in time. Until then he’s just going to have to stay out of situations with a high potential for physical conflict. His physical tests might need to cease for the time being." 

There was a moment where he heard footsteps and then Barnes lowered his voice, so Duncan had to focus in order to hear them. "What I am trying to ask is when will Duncan constitute a threat?"

He heard her sputter to herself. "What - a threat? To what? Humanity? Duncan? No, no. He’s a sweet boy. He’s a teenager, not a pandemic."

Barnes sighed deeply, “You know as well as I do, Gira, that it's only a matter of time before Belloc-" 

Duncan was pulled out of their conversation when he saw his mother storming down the hall, black curly hair pulled back and in her clean pressed interview suit. He startled away from the door. “Mom!” 

“Duncan.” She gently squeezed his arm. “Go sit in the rec room, I need to have a word with Colonel Barnes.” 

He nodded and started down the hall. The moment the door shut, he rushed back over to listen in on the conversation. 

"Whose brilliant idea was it to bring Duncan here?" She started, voice slightly raised. 

Barnes tried to speak and then finally got a sentence out. "Uh, how've you been, Margaret?"

Silence. 

"Look, I – I don’t like this either, but there was a little insignia respiro incident at school and-"

"That is what we call ‘your problem.’" He heard the venom in her voice. "I have a legal contract with MEGTAF stipulating that my son have as normal a life as humanly possible. Flying someone out into a military base in the middle of nowhere after school hours is  _ not  _ what I would call  _ normal." _

Barnes stuttered again. "That’s exactly what I’m trying to do, Margaret. Your son’s a fine kid, especially for a boy without a father, but he spat fire at a kid. I had to do something. I’d be happy to give you my two sense about him over dinner, sometime." 

Duncan growled deep in his throat, and then immediately clutched his neck. Where had  _ that _ come from? He could feel the scales returning, circling his neck.

"Do  _ not  _ flirt with me, Barnes." She snapped. “I’m taking Duncan home.”

Duncan raced off so he would make it to the rec room before she opened the door and caught him eavesdropping. It wasn’t his fault that he wanted to know what everyone else was trying to do with his life.

He had just settled in a chair and was acting natural when his mother came into the rec room. “C’mon, Duncan, we’re going home.”

Without argument, Duncan shouldered his bag and followed his mother out towards the hangar. She took the jump jet that Barnes had taken to fly Duncan over there. Duncan was able to sit in the co-pilot’s seat this time, and he spent most of the ride back staring out the canopy. 

After several long minutes with the pair sitting in complete silence, his mom tried to talk to him. "Duncan, how are you feeling?"

“Besides looking more like a freak than usual? I feel fine.” 

“Duncan, you’re not a freak, and you don’t look like one either.”

“Get real, my hair is bright red down to the root, I have scales that just burst out from under my skin, and what else, oh, I dunno, occasionally my eyes turn green, and now I can breathe fire.”

There was a pained look in her face while she spoke. “Duncan, you’re the only kaiju-human hybrid in existence. There’s never been anything like you before. Everything you’re going through is new. You’re unique. Not freaky.”

“Whatever you say.” Duncan settled back against the co-pilot’s seat. 

She sighed and started to think of ways they were going to explain the scorch marks on the floor of the cafeteria to the principal. The last thing that Duncan needed was to be suspended on his first day of school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * A/N: The acronym meaning is subject to change if I find a better one (There is no canon for what MEGTAF means)


	5. School the Next Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Summary:** Duncan has to face the consequences of the unfortunate timing of his powers developing more. Then, in his home, he practices with his fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Contains:** Mentions of an injured child, fire, mild choking, and some vulgar language

Duncan sat with Troy in the principal’s office, staring at the floor, praying to whatever God or Gods that exist that he was going to be able to keep the scales in his skin with how his heart was racing. Barnes was explaining away Troy’s comments on Duncan breathing fire. 

Barnes had stepped up to bat for Duncan before. When he was given the prescription for his pain meds, much higher than what you'd use on a human pain meds, he had to make sure that nobody would find them and report Duncan for drug usage. He had to make sure that nobody would ever notice the super strength. Nobody would ever find out he could run faster than any human feasibly should. 

Currently, Barnes currently had a container of flash powder in his hands, something he had 'confiscated' from Duncan’s bag. 

“It’s an old gag you can buy at any decent magic shop.” He unscrewed the lid and took out a pinch of flash powder. “The flash powder ignites on contact and poof,” He threw it down, making it spark and flash, “You got fireworks.”

Troy stood up fast enough that his chair flipped over. “That is such a load of _ bull shit!” _ He stormed up to the principal’s desk. “That freak’s mouth shot flames!” 

The principal stood up, raising an eyebrow at Troy. “Troy, we’ve discussed the school’s policy on both vulgar language and name calling.” He looked over at where Duncan was picking up Troy’s chair. “Duncan, your prank could have ended in serious injury.” 

“I-it did!” Troy pointed to where his eyelashes were missing and his eyebrows were not faring much better. “My eyebrows were totally burned off!”

The principal stood up. “Troy, no offence, but I’ve had you in here so many times your name should be on that chair on a brass plaque. Now, since you’re both at fault, you can either choose suspension or you could work together to clean up the damage.” He looked over at Duncan, who ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s your call.”

Troy scoffed. “Yeah, right. Like I’m gonna do anything with that… yob!”

Duncan rubbed at his neck, quickly pulling his hand away when he realized he might call attention to the marks left on his neck by the breakthrough yesterday. “If he doesn’t want to do it, can I still clean up the scorch marks? I really don’t want to be suspended.” 

“Of course, Duncan.” He looked over at Troy. “Do you want me to call your father and tell him you’ve been suspended  _ already _ ?”

Troy wrestled with himself for a moment. “Uh, no. I – I’ll help clean up the scorch marks.” 

“Good, now, before you boys head to first block, you two need to be in the cafeteria, scrubbing the floor until it sparkles.”

“Yes sir.” 

Within a few minutes of speaking to the janitor, Troy was on his hands and knees with a scrub brush and Duncan was pushing a mop around. They had been cleaning the cafeteria floor in silence. 

Duncan was wrestling with himself internally. He needed to apologize to Troy, save face. Something. He didn’t want some loudmouth idiot spilling his secret all over school. 

After going over the conversation once more in his head, he walked over to Troy. 

“Uh, look, Troy.” Duncan bit his lip as Troy glared up at him. “I’m truly ashamed of my thoughtless, dangerous, and immature prank. I’m sorry. Are we cool?” 

He extended his hand towards Troy. Troy got to his feet, scowling. 

“You kidding me? We are  _ not  _ cool.” He shoved the scrub brush into Duncan’s hand. “I know what I saw, and you are some kind of freak.” He took the handle of the mop out of Duncan’s other hand. “Stay away from me.”

Duncan shook his head, got on his knees, and started to scrub the scorch marks off the floor. At least he wouldn’t be bothered by the typical jock bully this year. 

Once the floor passed the principal’s inspection, they went to first block. They were working in groups on a lab report about the dissected frog. 

“Hey guys.” Duncan set his bag next to his stool. “What did I miss?”

“Not much.” Ken shoved their notebook towards Duncan. “You finally grabbed a lab book of your own, right? Copy the notes you made.”

“Sure.” He started to copy notes with a sigh.

“Oh! I forgot.” Ken handed him a black ink pen. “Blue or black ink only.” 

“You gotta be kidding me.” He took the pen. “That’s so stupid.”

“Mrs. Dreakford’s rules, bro, not mine.”

Duncan sighed and started to re-copy the notes in his lab book. His mind started to wander as he filled in the notebook. Was he cold blooded? No, he had a constant body temperature. Doc Pytel had told him. But what if kaiju were cold blooded? Would that affect him?

He was pulled out of his notebook and his thoughts when Isabel looked up from the outline of her lab report and started talking to him. “So, Kenny already said no because they got work, but, are you coming to the big party on Brookshire Lane Saturday?”

Duncan paused. “Uh, I wasn’t invited to any party.”

She shrugged. "Nobody was. They posted about it all online, and it's one of those parties where everyone just kinda shows up."

"Yeah, uh, it's not really my kinda scene. I - I'm not totally comfortable." 

“Oh come on, from the vibes you’re giving me, you probably go to bed on a Saturday about nine. It’s high school. Do something dumb for once.”

Duncan sighed. “You want to go, but you don’t want to go alone, is that it?”

“Yeah. I don’t have anything else to do this weekend, but I really don’t want to go alone.” She pouted at him. “Please come with?”

He sighed deeply. “What time do I need to be there?”

\---

Duncan managed to get home without any trouble. He texted his mother to let her know that he was home safe, and she texted back within a few moments. 

**‘There’s a few problems at work. I’ll be home soon.’**

**‘ok.’** He shot the text back and then set his phone in his jacket pocket. He had the house to himself for now. That opened up some possibilities of what he could do before she got home; He could finish setting up his room, he could stop by the store and grab some snacks to gorge on before she got home, he could try and figure out what would be dinner.

He could work on figuring out how to control his fire breath. 

Duncan paused his walk at that thought. Learning to control his fire breath might be a good idea, since it was way easier to lose control of than super strength. He continued on his way home.

When Duncan had been a child in kindergarten, he had accidentally broken the arm of one of the few kids that wanted to play with him. It had been an accident. They were just playing and Duncan hadn’t thought about his strength. It had been a small fracture, but hearing his classmate screaming and the nurse hauling them away was the first time Duncan had ever felt like a monster. Up until then his powers made him special, and he had felt like a superhero. One mistake had him pulled into home school for years and started the constant doctor’s visits. 

Fire breath was more dangerous, and he had to make sure that nobody was about to be burned by him. 

Once he got home, he closed any open blinds and drew the curtains over the glass door that led into the back yard. He didn’t need someone calling the cops or the fire department and potentially exposing his secret. They had just settled down and he didn’t want to move again. 

He pushed the couch and other flammable objects away from the metal coffee table. He paused before grabbing some candles and the fire extinguisher. 

Duncan sat cross legged in front of the table and set up the candle. Best to start with controlling the size of the flame. Just a small little spurt of flame. He took a few calming breaths and then focused on trying to pull the fire out of his chest again. 

His heart began to pound and then he felt intense heat coming up his throat. He took a short breath in and then made a weird combination between spitting and exhaling and then he spit the fire out onto the table, missing the candle he’d set up and landing it onto the spares. 

With a yelp, Duncan grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it onto the table. After a second it had gone out. 

Duncan brushed off the powdery remains of the extinguishing agent and checked over the candle. The ones that had been directly hit were melted all over the others and the table. 

“Fuck.” Duncan sighed and picked them up. He knew he should haven’t put them on the table. 

He glared at the candle in its holder and let the fire build in his throat, letting only a little get caught in his breath and then blew towards the candle. It lit. He pumped his fist in the air, and promptly choked on the rest of his fire. 

It was weird, choking on fire. It wasn’t like choking on food or water, there wasn’t an obstructed airway, there just wasn’t any air. He covered his mouth, not wanting to douse himself with the fire extinguisher and after a moment it was over. He coughed and then took in a deep breath. His mouth tasted like lighter fuel and soot. He grimaced and went to go wash his mouth out with water. 

Duncan sat back down with a glass of water after washing his mouth out. He just needed a little more practice and then would pack it in for the day. 

An hour and a half later, Duncan heard the front door shut. “Why does the house smell like smoke?” 

Duncan was cleaning up the last of the extinguishing agent in the living room. “I was just… practicing.” 

She walked into the living room and just stared for a long minute. Duncan looked sheepish under her gaze until she went over and opened the back door to get the smell out. “I don’t care what you do with your firebreath, but please don’t burn down the house.”

“I was being careful.” Duncan showed off the water and the fire extinguisher to her. “I took precautions.”

“I’m glad you did.” She pulled the curtains back to let some light in, a flash of green scampering out the door. “Make any progress?”

“I figured out how to aim and make rings.” Duncan shrugged. “Kinda easy once I looked up how smokers make smoke rings.” 

“Duncan!”

“What?” He smiled. “I wanted to have a trick with it.”


	6. The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Summary:** Duncan tries to socialize. Things end up not going well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Contains:** Brief mentions of alcohol, panic, brief mentions of soldiers/guns

The week rolled by with only one more doctor’s checkup and a little more fireball practice and soon Duncan found himself sneaking out on Saturday night, unable to explain to his mother that he was, in fact, going to a party. He had never been socially active so it was a very large change. 

His skin had been peeling or starting to form a strange scar over the areas where his scales actually pushed through in some areas. He ran his hand over his neck and jaw, feeling some of the new, rough skin pricking at his fingers and the scales underneath.

He turned on a lamp and made sure that he'd been able to cover any of the noticeable places with the foundation. Thankfully, it looked like he'd gotten all of the discolored areas.

"Duncan Rosenblatt." 

Duncan jumped at the sound. "Mom!" He whirled around.

She walked up to him, arms crossed, looking threatening in her too long purple shirt. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Well, Uh,” Duncan floundered for an explanation, “I - it's like this.... I'm kinda going to, a, uh, party." 

"You were invited to a party?" She raised her eyebrows. 

"Yeah, uh, Isabel told me about it ‘cause she didn’t want to go alone and I agreed to chaperone her." He shrugged on his leather jacket instead of his regular ACDC one. "Can I go?"

"Yes, but I want you back here by one, not a second later." She brushed off the jacket and straightened his shirt.

"Of course, Mom."

"And I don't want you having any alcohol if it's there, got it?"

"Yes, Mom." He brushed her hands off and went to the door. He paused and turned around to sign. ‘I love you.’ 

A small smile crossed her face and she signed back. ‘I love you too. Have fun.’ 

“I will.” Duncan promised before bouncing out the door. 

The long walk wasn’t that treacherous, as Duncan had dealt with worse than walking uphill on the side of the road. The party was in one of the big houses up on the hill overlooking the city. One of the rich kids that went to the school owned the place and was throwing the party while their parents were out. 

Duncan sighed softly to himself as he looked over the invite one more time and stuck his phone back in his pocket. It certainly looked like there was a party up there, but Duncan was still uncomfortable being up there. Large crowds and lots of noise had, in the past, never really been a good place for Duncan to be.

"Find Isabel, stick to her.” Duncan went over his game plan once more with himself. “Make a friend. She already likes you.” 

He took a deep breath and he knocked on the door. There was nothing in response but the thumping of the bass for the music. Duncan tried the knob, it was unlocked. 

Inside was loud, painfully so for his sensitive hearing. Bass thumped through the house, making the windows tremble. Duncan winced when people started yelling out for a song request. He kept farthest away from the speakers that were set up next to where some student was DJ-ing. Duncan tried to clear the noise from his ears and grabbed a soda. 

Isabel at some point materialized at his elbow, causing him to nearly spill his drink. 

“Hey there, big guy. I was wondering if you were gonna show up.” She nudged him playfully. “Love the jacket, man.” 

“Thanks.” He softly blushed. “You look nice too.”

She was wearing a yellow sundress with a flowy skirt over black tights. The bright yellow looked good on her, even if the My Chemical Romance logo on one leg of the tights contrasted a bit. 

“Thanks.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I was trying to dress up a little, but my tights that actually go with this dumb thing were in the wash.” 

“Nah, I like it. MCR was the anthem of my emo phase.” He waved her concern off. A particularly loud song came on and he groaned softly. “Wanna take this somewhere without a million people?”

“Yeah.” She softly pulled him out onto the balcony. There were significantly less people out here because of the chill in the air. “Better?”

“Much.” He sighed, thankful for the muffled noise. 

“So.” She hopped up onto the railing. “Tell me about that emo phase of yours.”

Duncan shook his head. “No thanks. I don’t particularly feel like spilling my first experiences with hair dye and begging for a piercing with you.” 

“Yeah, that’s fair.” Isabel swung her legs for a moment. “Okay, so what’s with those unconventional parents of yours? Giving you all those crazy names?”

He shrugged. “My Dad... insisted on naming me, it was his choice not mine.”

“Ah, Cryptozoology professor?”

“He was…. A bit of a monster himself.” Duncan took a long sip from his soda. Monster was putting it a little too lightly. “My Mom left him while he was pregnant with me. She liked the names though, so yeah.” 

“Aaah, right.” She sighed softly. “So, Dads are a sore subject. Got it. You have something that you want to talk about?”

“How do you feel about retro games?” Duncan smirked up at her. 

“Love them, Mr. Legend-of-Zelda-Shirt-on-the-First-Day-of-School.”

Duncan smirked at her. “Excuse you that was a beautiful start to an amazing franchise.” 

She nudged his shoulder as he leaned on the railing. “So, you went through the emo phase with MCR. What do you listen to now?”

He shrugged slightly. “I don’t really have a music taste. If it’s good, it’s good you know?” 

“C’mon, do you like… Broadway? Give me an artist, a band, a  _ genre. _ ” 

He thought for a long moment, crunching up the empty soda can in his hands. “Hozier.”

Isabel busted out laughing. “Hozier? Let me guess, Take Me to Church came on the radio and that’s the only song you listened to.” 

Duncan put a hand on his chest. “No. I actually found some of his other stuff like five years after Take Me to Church was popular. Don’t be a gatekeeper.” 

“I’m not gate keeping.” Isabel raised her hands in defense. “I was just guessing how you discovered him.”

Duncan rolled his eyes and gently poked her leg. “So what kind of music do  _ you  _ listen to?”

After twenty different topics and a couple hours, Duncan had really started to ease up around Isabel. It was nice to have a friend he liked to talk to again. His last friend he had lost in the move here, and it sucked because of how long they’d been friends. After a lengthy homeschool, he had gone back into public school at the beginning of elementary school. He moved schools twice during third and fourth grade. In fifth grade he wasn’t putting in any effort because he thought he would have to move again before it mattered, but then he met Maddie. 

Maddie was deaf. She didn’t fit in with other kids too, and he sat next to her a lot because she almost always had empty seats beside her. Maddie had been super cool to hang out with, and even though there was a little trouble with communication. After they had decided to be friends, Duncan ended up being really close with her during fifth grade and all throughout middle school and even freshman year of highschool. 

“So, this Maddie girl taught you sign language?” 

Duncan nodded. “Yeah, she was amazing. Helped me discover video games.”

“But you lost touch over the move?”

“Yeah.” Duncan rubbed the back of his neck. “It was a pretty sudden move. My Mom’s work transferred her and all.” That was only a half truth. They had to move because someone managed to record him using his super strength in training and put it on the internet. Barnes pulled strings within the company, bribed some human resource people, and then got Margaret transferred all the way out here. 

“That sucks.”

“Yeah… how do you feel about Transformers?”

Isabel didn’t get to answer. The music cut out very suddenly as everyone's phones started ringing. The DJ started shouting to the crowd of teens. "Hey, there's a kaiju alert for this whole area, effective immediately. Everyone go home and get to shelters now!"

People started screaming and scrambled around, trying to get out of the house. Isabel was freaking out on her phone. Duncan grabbed his phone out of his pocket. 

There was a kaiju alert mass text from the government. A class five kaiju had left kaiju territory and was heading towards the city. Estimated arrival time, forty five minutes. They could hear the warning sirens start up in the city.

"Come on, Duncan!" Isabel grabbed his arm and led him out of the house. People’s cars were gunning it down the mountain road towards the nearest shelter. "Do you have a ride?"

"No, I - I walked here."

"My parents dropped me off." Isabel started to chew her fingernails. "It's gonna be awhile before they get here. Maybe someone else can give us a ride?"

"I doubt it.” Duncan bit his lip as most of the cars were already pulling out. “You call your parents, and we'll start walking in that direction anyway. Can’t hurt, right?”

They were walking, Duncan in the lead and Isabel was on the phone with her parents. "I'm walking with Duncan, I told you about him.... I know, we're just trying to make some headway.... Okay, love you. Bye." She hung up. "What about your Mom? Is she going to come get you?"

"Uh, yeah." He looked over at his phone and over her string of frantic texts, knowing that she was fearing the worst. "She's on her way, but she wants me to start walking anyway, traffic is horrendous and she might not get to me in time."

"Mine too." She looked over at the hill that blocked their view of kaiju territory. "Maybe we should walk faster."

There was a roar in the distance. Duncan’s heart began to pound in a frantic dance and Isabel gripped his hand tightly. “Yeah. Good idea.” 

Their phones chimed out with an update on the kaiju alert. Ten minutes out. Its speed must have picked up. Isabel and Duncan could hear what almost sounded like thunder in the distance. Probably the footsteps of the huge beast. 

Isabel cleared her throat, stuffing her phone into the top of her dress. “That thing is really moving.”

“We should get to cover.” Duncan pulled her off the mostly deserted road, and they crouched among an abandoned car and shrubbery. 

“None of this makes sense.” Isabel let her head thump against the rusted out car. “Like, why now? It’s been seventeen years! Practically eighteen! You think they would have done something before now!”

Duncan only faintly noticed her because he was feeling a tugging sensation in his gut, and he did not like it. Fire was climbing in his throat. It was like when he’d been cornered by something or someone in the past, only except ten times more intense. The only time he could relate this kind of fight or flight response to was when he found himself staring down the barrel of a soldier’s gun.

A gamoradon clambered out of the broken down and rusted out car and across Isabel’s lap. Isabel gasped and made a grab for it. Duncan tried to grab it, but it scampered off.

“I do not like the sounds of that.” Duncan whispered as he half-stood to peer through one of the busted windows. “It’s getting closer.”

“Get down!” She hissed as she tugged at his jacket sleeve. “Duncan!”

Duncan sat down hard, hands trembling, a cold sweat taking hold of his body. “I saw it.” 

“What?!” Isabel glanced over the car door and sat down, terrified. “It’s Belloc.” She hugged her legs to her chest and buried her head in her knees. “The actual head kaiju himself. It’s fucking Belloc. Oh my God, we’re going to die here.” 

Duncan’s ears were ringing, and he could feel like scales pushing out of his skin. The same part of his mind that was screaming to roast Troy alive was now screaming for him to fight.


	7. The King of Kaiju and the Prince of Monsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Summary:** The time has come for Belloc to present the next candidate to the throne to the rest of the kaiju. Duncan has to face his father for the first time in his entire life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Contains:** Swearing, fear, peril and mild pain, kaiju ocs

Duncan was itching all over, mind and heart buzzing with adrenaline. He glanced over at Isabel curled up and tried to say something without spitting fire. He gently nudged her arm. “We gotta run.” 

Isabel glanced up at him, mouth open to argue, and immediately flinched back. Her eyes went huge and she covered her mouth. "Your  _ eyes _ ."

“What?”

“They’re green!” The look on her face of shock and confusion was one he’d remember for the rest of his life, however short it may be. “What… what’s going on with you?”

“Listen, Isabel. We have to run. Belloc isn’t here for some random reason.” He clenched his fists tightly, seeing a few scales starting to appear on the back of his hands. Blood started to dribble from where the scales tore through his skin, he could feel it. “He’s looking for me.”

“W-why would he be looking for you?” 

“Because….” He licked his lips, hands trembling. “Because Belloc is my father. I am the Prince of Kaiju.”

“How?” Her voice cut off in a squeak as it became close enough they could hear the gust-like breath of the approaching monster. 

“I’m not kidding.” Duncan whispered fiercely, moving from a sit to a crouch. “You better run, Isabel. Run and don’t look back. I’ll distract him.”

The car they were leaning against was grabbed up in an enormous, red, scaly hand and thrown away. Isabel let loose a shrill scream as Duncan felt his blood boil, his mind screaming at him to fight, to kill. Belloc was feet from them both, staring down at them with orange and yellow eyes. His enormous bulk was a black mountain in the sparse light. Gust-like breaths made Duncan’s unzipped jacket move against his sides.

“Run!” Duncan pulled Isabel to her feet and pushed her towards the city. “Belloc! Your fight’s with me!” He bolted in the opposite direction. 

For once in his life, Duncan was thankful for the endless treadmill testing from MEGTAF. They had honed his ability to marathon at inhuman speeds. He might be able to actually get out of this. He just needed to get somewhere safe and everything would be okay. He headed back towards the MEGTAF base, angled away from the city. 

Even with all the training Duncan endured, it was still really hard to outpace something with legs many times longer than your body. He didn’t have a ghost of a chance of actually winning this race. 

Duncan hadn’t gotten too far when he was engulfed in flames. 

A scream was ripped out of him as Duncan stumbled, curling up in a desperate movement to protect himself. After a second, the intense heat and light were gone. Duncan smelled singed hair and burnt cloth. His leather jacket was embers in the wind, his pants were singed but holding together by some miracle and his shoes were puddled. Other than that, he was fine.

He scrambled to his feet, kicking off the molten plastic, but got nowhere before he was snatched up in the enormous scaly hand that immobilized him with no effort. 

“Let me go!” Duncan screamed, struggling as best as he could with both arms pinned to his sides and his legs completely immobile. The thick red leather of Belloc's palm held him tightly in place, even as Belloc got up onto two legs. “Let go!” 

Belloc didn’t answer, just turned and headed back toward the mountains and towards Kaiju territory. Suddenly, Duncan felt really, really terrible for ever making fun of people in giant monster movies. There really was no way out of the fist of a giant monster.

After too long of struggling and far too much distance between them and civilization, Duncan had barely managed to get one of his arms free. He’d still not allowed himself to stop struggling or protesting. He wasn’t going to give up out of sheer  _ spite _ at this point.

“Where are you taking me?” He growled up at Belloc.

No answer, again. Duncan thumped his fist against the side of Belloc’s finger, frustrated. How did his Mom have a relationship with this  _ thing _ if he never spoke?

Duncan growled softly to himself and then decided to finally release a little of the flame that was built up in his chest. He tilted his head up towards Belloc, taking in a long breath, and he spewed fire from his mouth, aiming for the eye. 

Belloc turned his head away as the flames made contact. Once Duncan shut his mouth he could see the flames die on his scales. After a second, those huge orange and yellow eyes blinked and glanced down at him. Belloc chuckled softly, bringing Duncan up close to his face. Duncan felt his throat tighten, extinguishing any fire. Fear rushed down his spine. 

Was he going to be killed for that outburst?

"Excellent." Belloc twisted his hand around as he opened his fingers and Duncan suddenly was on his back in Belloc’s palm. Duncan tried to stand when thick talons knocked him over and pinned him down, crushing the breath out of his chest with the weight. "Duncan, my son. Let me look at you."

Duncan didn't like the way those multi colored eyes stared down at him. They were just so critical, like Belloc could see right through Duncan. Hot air rolled over Duncan, smelling like smoke and rotten meat. The bad feeling in his stomach intensified, and Duncan had to try not to hurl. 

A small whine left Duncan’s throat as he kicked his feet. "Why don’t you just kill me already and get it over with?"

Belloc pulled his talons back and then returned his hold into a tight fist. "If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead, along with that human girl."

"Then just let go of me!" Duncan struggled fruitlessly against the thick leather that continued to pull at his already mangled clothes. ”What do you want with me?”

"Stop struggling. You'll need your strength."

"Where are you taking me?" Duncan was having to try not to gag from the horrible kaiju breath. 

“You will see. It is time that you faced your destiny, Duncan.”

Before he could reply, Belloc continued his walk into kaiju teritory. 

There were a few more minutes of the constant swaying from his walk, then Duncan was suddenly dropped a few feet onto a rock outcropping. Disbelief welled up in Duncan. Belloc had actually let him go for a moment. Duncan glanced up at Belloc, who was busying himself with moving a large boulder that covered a crevice in the rock. 

He broke into an all-out sprint in the other direction. 

"Do not prolong the inevitable!" Belloc shouted, nearly deafening Duncan before snatching him off the ground again. "You must be here tonight. This has been a long time in the making."

The two of them vanished into a crevice in the rock, which widened out into an enormous, crystal filled, cave system. Duncan momentarily ceased his struggling while he managed to take it in. These crustals were bigger than most one story houses. 

"We are an ancient race, Duncan.” Belloc began, shoving the bouclder that covered the enterance back into place with his shoulder. “So old we have faded from the humans’ memory more than once. Now, the human world cannot deny our existance. They call us ‘invaders’ when it is  _ they _ who have infested our world, Ducnan. The world we rightfully won." He set Duncan on a pile of rock. 

"W-where are we?" He couldn't see a way out of here. 

"Home, Duncan." Belloc settled on all fours. "Your true home."

"No way." Duncan shook his head. "This isn't my home. That doesn't change just because my father is a  _ kaiju _ ."

"I am not just  _ a _ kaiju." He snorted smoke at Duncan. "I am Belloc,  _ King _ of the Kaiju. You may be my son, but you are  _ weak. _ " 

Duncan jumped down, blood boiling in his veins. He found one of the larger crystal formations and ripped the twenty foot tall chunk of crystal out of the ground and threw it at the other wall. It shattered on impact. "I’m not weak! I'm strong enough!" 

"I have no doubts about your physical strength, but you are  _ small, _ and the human world has made your heart  _ soft. _ " He poked Duncan in the chest with a talon, making him stumble. "You must grow to be hard and remorseless if you are to rule over the kaiju."

"Do you really  _ think _ I'm gonna be the king of these creatures?" Duncan felt fire in his chest again, his heart pounding, his voice also jumped up an octave. "I’m not one of you! I am  _ not _ a  _ monster!" _

"You are my son!" Duncan was snatched up again, brought before Belloc’s snarling face. "You are half kaiju, Duncan, superior to everyone you have ever known. You  _ will _ be my successor, whether you want to or not!"

"Is that's why you brought me here!?" Duncan struggled against his grip. "You've ignored me and Mom my whole fucking  _ life _ and now you expect to train me for something that I don't even want! Fuck you!" He made a very rude gesture. 

A low growl came from the kaiju's throat, but he stopped short. Duncan watched his pupils narrow as he looked deeper into the caves. "Listen."

Thunderous roars were coming from deeper in the cave, paired with pounding footsteps

"They're assembling. They've caught our scent." Belloc walked deeper into the cave. "Do not make a sound, understand?"

Duncan didn't answer. 

The two of them went deeper into the caves. The cave became darker, then almost blinded him with the light. 

Belloc stood on the ledge above an enormous lava pool. Despite being so high up from the magma, Duncan could still feel the scorching heat. If it didn't evaporate so fast, he'd be sweating. 

There were many other kaiju standing around it, but at various lower ledges. Duncan was instantly able to recognize what kind of place this was. This was a meeting place, and the two of them were at the head of the table. 

\---

The kaiju were assembled before Belloc. His current bride and other children were gathered on the highest shelf, watching him. They knew exactly what it was time for. The presentation of the heir who would succeed him. Vencoatl, his oldest, had a hopeful look in his eyes. Crocada was beside him, her serpentine body curled underneath her. Terlus was standing to the side, head raised in wait. Malevolus was eagerly standing on the edge of the rock shelf, pincers tightly clenched. Tarangas was hiding behind eir dam's leg, eyes wide as ey watched him. 

Belloc stood tall. Duncan was shifted to an open palm at his side. The boy may be young and impulsive, but he was not foolish enough to try something now. 

"I am your king, but my time must come to end! I have chosen my successor from my children!" All of them shuffled forward, Malevolus teetering on the edge of the shelf. Belloc raised his hand to reveal Duncan to the masses. "This is my chosen heir, Duncan!" 

There was no hiding the boy now. Spirits of the Fallen protect him. 

Uproar filled the chamber. Many voices cried out in uproar over his choice of successor. Notably, his children were silent, but he saw everything from rage to disgust to shock to disappointment throughout the rest of his broof. His bride, Shaba, stood dumbfounded, claws trembling as she pulled Tarangas loser to protect em from the outry. 

One kaiju's voice was dominating some of the others. Abbadon rose up on his front pair of legs, four beady black eyes boring into him. He raised his claws, his green plating and blue skin looking near black in the light. "You desecrate our race! You shame our ceremony!"

Aztheroth, Abbadon's twin, snarled and their spines raised slightly. "First, you keep us from exterminating the human vermin, and now you mate with them!" 

“You're a traitor to your blood!”

"Silence!" His Command echoed through the caves. It fell to total silence in a second. Duncan was crouched in his palm, hands covering his ears in pain"Who dares to challenge their king?! Do you Abbadon? Or you Aztheroth?"

Both stepped back, letting their arms drop back to their side, forcefully lowering their spines. 

"I thought as much." He scoffed. "As it is law, any may challenge my heir or myself for my throne, but I have made my choice! Let it be known among our people that this boy is my heir! He is my son, and he  _ will  _ rule this kingdom!" 

Deafening silence followed the exclamation. 

The matter was settled. The trials and the fight for the throne can begin.

Duncan pulled his hands away from his ears, nervousness and confusion on every feature. The boy didn't understand one of his own blood languages. Belloc added a need for lessons in language to the list of things to be fixed before Dunan could take his place on the throne. 

"Brace yourself, child." Belloc mumbled, switching to English for the moment.

"Wha-!" Duncan could not finish his thought as he was hurled into the center of the magma pool. 

Belloc steeled himself a bare moment before the pained scream of the boy ripped through the chamber. A fist behind his back clenched for seconds dragged into eternity before a figure threw itself out of the magma pool.

Duncan had undergone a mild transformation. His fully scaled body hovered in the air, wings similar to Belloc's own when they were still functional were flared open. Duncan’s tail whipped angrily as he landed to a rock wall, near Belloc’s own eye level. Red scales adorned Duncan's too small body, much like his own. Small, black horns were visible among his bright red hair. 

With a hellish roar, fire spewed from Duncan’s mouth, enveloping the ceiling. The heat was impressive, rivaling Belloc’s own fire breath. 

The knot of unease in Belloc’s stomach loosened ever so slightly. Duncan had survived the first trial, but the night was long, and many trials needed to be done. Only time will tell if he would continue to survive. 


End file.
